New Zealand Archives - State of the Planet

flooded land

Resilient Coastal Communities and Climate Adaptation: Lessons from New York for New Zealand

A Fulbright scholar from the South Pacific shares the lessons she will bring home after a research fellowship with the Climate School’s Resilient Coastal Communities Project.

by Aya Morris |January 20, 2023
map of sensor locations along trench

New Study Helps to Explain ‘Silent Earthquakes’ Along New Zealand’s North Island

Underwater mountains may help to dampen movements along faults that otherwise have the potential to generate large earthquakes.

by |July 7, 2021

The ‘Zealandia Switch’: Missing Link in Big Natural Climate Shifts?

Movements of winds in the Southern Hemisphere may be the key to waxing and waning of ice ages, says a new study.

by |March 15, 2021

Did New Zealand Dust Influence the Last Ice Age?

Bess Koffman, a postdoctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, recently traveled to New Zealand to collect dust ground-up by glaciers during the last ice age. In this photo essay, she explains how she collected the dust, what analysis looks like in the lab and what she hopes to learn.

by |March 13, 2014
dust plume, Australia, Pacific Southern Ocean

Earth’s Climate History, Written in Dust

Dust blowing onto the oceans can help algae grow and pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. It influences the radiative balance of the planet by reflecting sunlight away. Scientists want to know what role this plays in the coming and going of the ice ages, and how it affects our climate.

by |January 24, 2014

A Natural Wonder Rediscovered

Scientists using underwater sensors to explore Lake Rotomahana in New Zealand have uncovered remnants of the “Pink Terraces,” once considered the eighth natural wonder of the world. Lamont-Doherty scientist Vicki Ferrini was working with colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and GNS Science of New Zealand at the site, near Rotorua, to map the… read more

by |February 25, 2011

Maori Values; Modern Solutions

New Zealand’s longest river is also its most polluted, but Maori tribesmen have help to offer that goes beyond technology.

by |February 24, 2011